Swann Varifocal IP Camera User Manual page 10

The Varifocal cameras are very flexible, and can be installed practically anywhere.
Some of the things you'll have to consider when choosing a location are:
• What you want to monitor, and where you'll get the best view of it.
• How you're going to connect the camera to your monitoring system. Remember
that cables and connections should be kept out of the weather.
• How to keep the camera out of harm's way. Up high in protected corners is a
good option.
Regardless of all the tweaking of the lens and image processing you do, there are a
few immutable things that are true for all cameras, Full HD or otherwise.
• The closer the camera is to what you want to see, the more detail you're going
to get. Full HD is a gloriously high-definition picture, but reality has near infinite
resolution! You can gain some detail by tweaking the zoom, but this comes at
the cost of viewing area - there's no substitute for proximity.
• Areas with varied lighting conditions are hard to view completely, with any
camera. If the bright bits are exposed correctly, then the shadows will "black out".
If the shadowy areas are exposed correctly, then the bright bits will overexpose
and "white out". Aiming the camera at an evenly lit area will always give the best
results.
• That "image enhancement" stuff that they do on CSI is all lies. You can't zoom
in indefinitely on a video image. Licence plates are only readable from a dozen
meters (a few dozen or so feet) away - the exact distance depends on the amount
of zoom applied. If someone's head is represented by three pixels, that's it. Sorry.
This is technology, not magic. This is a great CCTV camera, but it's still just a video
camera - it can't see that much better than you can! Still, it does make for good
television.
10
Installation Tips and Tricks
Choosing a Location
Rules is Rules